New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS): Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday stated that several issues regarding the Kozhikode airport which were red flagged by the regulator - DGCA - were duly addressed by the airport operator. These issues pertain to excessive rubber deposits, water stagnation, cracks, among others.

In a series of tweets, Puri said that raising such concerns is the normal work of DGCA.

Besides, he pointed out that DGCA strictly ensures that these issues are rectified under all circumstances and this was done by the airport operator.

Puri also urged to wait for the outcome of the statutory enquiry and then visit the issue with facts.

"I would like to remind my colleagues that the aircraft involved in the incident at Kozhikode was a B-737-800 which is NOT a wide body aircraft. As far as wide body aircraft are concerned, DGCA had carried out a thorough assessment & prescribed comprehensive mitigation measures."

The Civil Aviation Minister tweeted this in response to a tweet stating that ban on wide body aircrafts landing was removed in 2019.

He said that AAI strengthened the runway and thereafter necessary permissions were issued in 2018 to operate wide body aircraft.

Consequently, certain carriers started operating some flights with wide body aircraft to Kozhikode Airport.

The minister further informed that Kozhikode Airport has a total footfall of 3.2 million passengers per annum with 70-80 aircraft movement per day.

On the other hand, the total wide body operations are only 4 per cent of the total.

The Civil Aviation Minister reiterated that as in case of Kozhikode accident, an enquiry has been ordered under Aircraft Act, black boxes of flight IX-1344 have been recovered.

Findings of this investigation will be made public, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement.